Aleksei Andrianov 18 Minutes of Happiness

Reaction video is a format often used by videobloggers. Nevertheless, in recent years it has increasingly been employed by researchers and video essayists and experimenters. This is not surprising, since self-reflection, the combining of a spectacle and discussion about it, and a picture which documents its own appearance are the essence of essayism.

Aleksei Andrianov assembles his work from fragments piled on top of one other. He suggests simultaneously watching the films of Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and his own critical comments on them, which overlap and delete the image. Andrianov invites us to listen to his impressions of his favourite director’s works, to go for a morning jog with him, and to attend game sessions on the time-killer Crossy Road, i.e. to take a closer look at the little things and everyday circumstances from which his impressions were formed.

The visual and sound streams in Andrianov’s essay are deliberately confused, designed to disorientate the viewer due to an excess of signals. A few years ago, video essayist Kevin B. Lee warned in the credits of one of his multiscreen works that one should not try to keep track of all video streams as there is a risk of going mad. A similar formula could be used to preface 18 Minutes of Happiness, which is attacked by multiple rumblings and mutterings. At the same time, it is worth noting that the different levels of speaking here often interfere with each other, but also regularly rhyme, sometimes absurdly and sometimes insightfully complementing and supporting each other.